During the reign of the KNC Titan and after several dark years of almost no new development or innovation at all, large sums of money are suddenly being invested into new scrypt mining hardware. Innosilicon and Bitmain have invested big, and it would be a huge shock to see others not follow the money trail.

The sudden peak in interest is very obvious, but what are your thoughts on what caused this?

Can a case begin to be made for the downfall of hardcore bitcoin elitism?

Gotta agree here, with Bitcoin mining becoming overly saturated it's all about diversification. Investment/Innovation for LTC isn't an inherently bad thing but will signal the end of the "home mining" days.